John MacLeod of MacLeod

{{Infobox person

| name = John MacLeod of MacLeod

| birth_name = John Wolrige-Gordon

| birth_date = {{birth date|1935|8|10|df=y}}

| birth_place = Ellon, Aberdeenshire

| death_date = {{death date and age|2007|2|12|1935|8|10|df=y}}

| death_place = London, England

| title = The 29th Chief of Clan MacLeod

| predecessor = Flora MacLeod of MacLeod (grandmother)

| successor = Hugh Magnus MacLeod of MacLeod (son)

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Drusilla Mary Shaw|25 July 1961|31 March 1971|end=divorced}}
{{marriage|Melita Kolin|19 March 1973|8 August 1992|end=divorced}}
{{marriage|Ulrika Magdalena Tham|27 March 2004}}

}}

| children = {{flatlist|

Stephan
Hugh Magnus
Elena Mary Nadezhda

}}

John MacLeod of MacLeod, born John Wolrige-Gordon (10 August 1935 – 12 February 2007) was the 29th Chief of Clan MacLeod. Faced with the need for expensive repairs to the clan's seat at Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye, his proposed methods to raise funds caused considerable controversy. His twin brother, Patrick Wolrige-Gordon (1935–2002), was MP for East Aberdeenshire.

Biography

John was born as John Wolrige-Gordon in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, on 10 August 1935. He was the elder of the twin sons of Captain Robert Wolrige-Gordon, MC and his wife Joan Walter. His mother, Joan, was the daughter of Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod, the 28th Chief of Clan MacLeod and a descendant of John Walter, founder of The Times. His younger twin brother, Patrick Wolrige-Gordon, would later become a Tory Member of Parliament.{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1542687/John-MacLeod-of-MacLeod.html |title=John MacLeod of MacLeod |date=15 February 2007 |publisher=www.telegraph.co.uk |accessdate=22 November 2009 }} The twins had an older brother, Robert Wolrige-Gordon, who would later succeed their father as the 21st Laird of Hallhead, 10th Baron of Esslemont.{{cite book |last=Dewar |first=Peter Beauclerk |title=Burke's landed gentry of Great Britain: together with members of the titled and non-titled contemporary establishment |year=2001 |publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |edition=19, illustrated |isbn=978-0-9711966-0-5| pages=532–533}}

John was educated at Cheam School, Eton College, McGill University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He started a career in acting and singing after National Service in the Black Watch Regiment.{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-macleod-of-macleod-440582.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513070902/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-macleod-of-macleod-440582.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 May 2011 |title=John MacLeod of MacLeod |author=Stourton, James |date=17 March 2007 |publisher=www.independent.co.uk |accessdate=23 November 2009 }}

In 1951, he was named heir to his grandmother, changed his surname to MacLeod of MacLeod, and was recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms as John MacLeod of MacLeod, Younger. He matriculated arms at Lyon Office in 1962. He later succeeded as Chief of Clan MacLeod in 1976. In 2000, faced with the high cost of repairs to Dunvegan Castle, his clan's seat for more than 800 years, he put the Black Cuillin range in Skye on the market for £10 million. He also planned to build an 80-bedroom hotel on his Skye estate with the proceeds of the sale. The planned sale caused outrage at the time and was never completed.{{cite news |title=MacLeod 'gifts' Cuillin to public |publisher=www.news.scotsman.com |date=10 July 2003 |url=http://news.scotsman.com/cuillinhills/MacLeod-gifts-Cuillin-to-public.2442571.jp |author=Ross, John |accessdate=24 November 2009 }} He had also considered transferring the range to a charitable trust for public ownership.{{cite news |title=Clan MacLeod chief dies aged 71 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6358615.stm |website=BBC |date=14 February 2007 |access-date=12 January 2021}}

Family

John married Drusilla Mary Shaw, daughter of actor Sebastian Shaw,

on 25 July 1961. The marriage was dissolved by divorce, without issue, on 31 March 1971. He had a natural son, Stephan, born in 1971.{{cite book |author=MacLeod Nicol, Nancy |title=Tell your Children About the Stones |year=2002 |publisher=Keylime Press }} On 19 March 1973, he married Melita Kolin, daughter of Duko Kolin, of Sofia. The couple had two children, Hugh Magnus and Elena Mary Nadezhda, born in 1973 and 1977 respectively. His second marriage was also dissolved by divorce, on 28 August 1992. On 27 March 2004, he married Ulrika Magdalena Tham, daughter of Nils Johann Carl Henrik Tham. "Clan MacLeod Magazine", p. 73, issue No. 100, April 2005

Cricket

During the 1980s, John became a keen playing member of the [http://rhubarbrabbit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/poet-and-peasants-xi.html Poet's and Peasants' Cricket Club], a group of amateurs (largely musicians) that included founding member Bramwell Tovey. The club's poet was Alan Gibson, The Times cricket correspondent and former Test Match Special commentator. Such was John's modesty that few of the members knew about his background until a piece appeared about him in one of the Sunday broadsheets. John was by all accounts a decent batsman and would usually open the batting for the Peasants with a statuesque West Indian named Tony Jenkins who drove trains on London's Central Line. The club was based in Essex and most of the fixtures were played in this county, some considerable distance from John's London home in Chelsea.

Death and successor

On 12 February 2007, John died of leukaemia, aged 71, in London, England.{{cite news |title=Clan MacLeod chief dies aged 71 |publisher=www.news.bbc.co.uk |date=14 February 2007 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6358615.stm |accessdate=24 November 2009 }} His funeral was held at Duirinish Free Church of Scotland, at Dunvegan. He was buried at the ruined stone church at Kilmuir.{{cite news |title=Hundreds gather to mourn MacLeod chief |publisher=www.heraldscotland.com |date=24 February 2007 |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/hundreds-gather-to-mourn-macleod-chief-1.827282 |accessdate=24 November 2009 }} John was succeeded by his second son, Hugh Magnus MacLeod, as 30th Chief of Clan MacLeod.

Ancestry

{{ahnentafel

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|1= 1. John Wolrige-Gordon then MacLeod of MacLeod, younger then MacLeod, 29th of MacLeod

|2= 2. Capt. Robert Wolrige-Gordon, 20th of Hallhead and 9th of Esslemont

|3= 3. Joan Walter

|4= 4. Col. John Wolrige-Gordon, 19th of Hallhead and 8th of Esslemont

|5= 5. Isabel Hervey Woodhouse

|6= 6. Hubert Walter

|7= 7. Dame Flora Louisa Cecilia MacLeod, 28th of MacLeod, DBE

|8= 8. Henry Perkins Wolrige

|9= 9. Anne Gordon, 18th of Hallhead and 7th of Esslemont

|10= 10. Capt. William Hervey Woodhouse, of Irnham Hall

|11= 11. Sarah Ellen Cole

|12= 12. John Walter, of Bearwood Park, MP

|13= 13. Flora Macnab

|14= 14. Sir Reginald MacLeod, 27th of MacLeod, KCB

|15= 15. Lady Agnes Mary Cecilia Northcote

|16= 16. Col. John Wolrige, RM

|17= 17. Mary Anne Knox

|18= 18. Maj. Robert Gordon, 17th of Hallhead and 5th of Esslemont

|19= 19. Jane Gilmour

|20= 20. William Woodhouse, of Toxteth Park

|21= 21. Sarah Dorothy Hervey

|22= 22. William Cole

|23= 23.

|24= 24. John Walter, of Bearwood Park

|25= 25. Mary Smythe

|26= 26. James Munro Macnab, of Highfield House

|27= 27. Jane Mary Campbell

|28= 28. Norman MacLeod, 25th of MacLeod

|29= 29. The Hon. Louisa Barbara St. John

|30= 30. Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh

|31= 31. Cecilia Frances Farrer, CI

}}

Heraldry

{{Infobox COA wide

|image = Coat of Arms of Macleod of Macleod.svg

|image size =

|bannerimage =

|badgeimage =

|notes = The Latin motto, murus aheneus esto, translates into English as "be thou a wall of brass".{{cite book |last=Fairbairn |first=James |title=Royal book of crests of Great Britain and Ireland, Dominion of Canada, India and Australasia : derived from best authorities and family records |year=1883 |publisher=James MacVeigh |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/royalbookofcrest01fairuoft |volume=1 |page=541 }} The 1st and 4th quarters represent the MacLeod family; the 2nd and 3rd quarters represent the royal Manx heritage of the clan.

|year_adopted = Lyon Office 2 June 1962. Crest: Lyon Office January 1943.

|crest = A bull's head cabossed sable, horned Or, between two flags gules, staves of the first.{{cite book |last=Dewar |first=Peter Beauclerk |title=Burke's landed gentry of Great Britain: together with members of the titled and non-titled contemporary establishment |year=2001 |publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |edition=19, illustrated |isbn=978-0-9711966-0-5| pages=941–942}}

|torse =

|helm =

|escutcheon = Quarterly; 1st and 4th, azure, a castles triple-towered and embattled argent, masoned sable, windows and porch gules; 2nd and 3rd, gules, three legs in armour proper, garnished and spurred Or, flexed and conjoined in triangle at the upper part of the thigh.

|supporters = Two lions reguardant gules, armed and langued azure, each holding a dagger proper.

|compartment =

|motto = Hold fast (above the crest); murus aheneus esto (on a compartment below the shield).

|orders =

|other_elements =

|banner =

|badge =

|symbolism =

|previous_versions =

}}